


Getting Back What Was Lost

by thenerdyindividual



Series: High Seas [2]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Artists, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22340236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenerdyindividual/pseuds/thenerdyindividual
Summary: Merlin has been with the Kingsman Pirates for some time now. His relationship with Harry, and Eggsy is strong. Eggsy wants to give Merlin back a piece of what he lost during his time in the Navy. (You do not need to read part one to understand this part.)
Relationships: Harry Hart | Galahad/Merlin/Gary "Eggsy" Unwin
Series: High Seas [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608130
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58
Collections: Fic Fights Fire





	Getting Back What Was Lost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anarchycox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/gifts).



> This was written as a thank you for participating in the Fic Fights Fire event. Interested in how you can help fight the Australian Bush Fires, and get a thank you fic in the process? Visit our page at: https://kingsmanficwars.tumblr.com/post/190179167954/fic-fights-fire

The seas are calm. What waves there are barely rock the ship as it sails. The crew is in good spirits too. After almost a month of battling tropical storms that made even the most experienced sailors sick to their stomachs, a warm clear day is a welcome reprieve. 

The crew call out jokes to each other as they work. Occasional snippets of song drift across the waves only to be swept away by the wind. 

Merlin sits, basking in the sunlight, as he repairs a barrel. The storms, while rough, worked in their favor. Often the merchant vessels were so focused on sailing true in the storm, they noticed the pirates too late. They’d knocked over two in the last month. 

The sun is warm enough that most of the crew has divested themselves of their usual layers, Merlin included. However, between the sun, and the work of repairing the barrel, the shirt Merlin does wear is sticking to his back uncomfortably. He sets his tools aside for a second, then lifts the damp fabric over his head, and tosses it to the side to be dealt with later. 

He is completely oblivious to the stir it causes. 

Despite being in the ratlines, Eggsy notices the sudden appearance of skin, and he nearly loses his footing. He manages to right himself, and go about his work, but he still glances down at Merlin every now and then. He is struck, not for the first time, by how well muscles Merlin is. 

Eggsy is one of the few crew members who still has a shirt on. For one thing, he’s not interested in accidentally getting rope burn on his chest, and for another he is prone to sunburn, and Harry hates it when he’s burned. It makes fucking uncomfortable, and not in the fun, and interesting ways they’ve discovered together. 

Still, seeing Merlin with his shirt off raises Eggsy’s temperature another few degrees. 

Eggsy finishes his work as quickly as he can, and then works his way back down the lines. Harry is waiting for him when his feet touch down on the deck. 

“All finished?” Harry asks conversationally. 

“Yes, Captain,” Eggsy responds, but his focus is on the patch of dark ink on Merlin’s shoulder, “I didn’t know Merlin had a tattoo.”

“Hm?” Harry turns to follow Eggsy’s line of sight, “Oh. Yes. He has a few actually. He designed most himself.”

“What? Really?”

“Merlin was quite the artist when he joined the navy,” Harry explains, “Could always find him with a bit of charcoal, and some paper. By the time we parted ways he’d given it up. He was on track to become an officer, and apparently art was too feminine a hobby unless it was being used to copy enemy sigils with a degree of accuracy.”

“Fucking glad I didn’t join the navy.” Eggsy mutters.

Harry just hums in agreement. He drops a quick kiss on Eggsy’s head, “I have more work to do. Don’t forget to take a break now, and then. I don’t want you coming down with heat stroke. And do me a favor? Remind Merlin as well.”

Eggsy saunters across the deck, and takes a seat on one of the barrels Merlin hasn’t set about disassembling yet. 

“Harry wants me to remind you to take a break so you don’t get heat stroke.” 

“Thank ye, lad. I will once I finish this.” Merlin responds as he hunches over a plank, and spreads some sort of resin on it. 

“Was you really an artist before the navy?”

“I was never really an artist. I didn’t sell any of my work.”

“But you still did drawings, and things?”

“I did.” Merlin agrees.

“You ever think of going back to it?”

“Sometimes,” Merlin admits, “But I doubt I’m any good at it these days. It’s been years since I last sketched.”

He finishes painting on the resin, and sets the plank aside. He smiles at Eggsy, and stands up. 

“Why don’t we see what Harry’s gotten himself into?”

*

They’re much further east than they usually are. The crown has been intensifying their presence in the Caribbean, and the islands have become a veritable ghost town. Crews have scattered across the world, and Harry’s brilliant idea was to hide along the coast of Turkey for the time being. 

Eggsy likes Turkey. Enough that if Harry, and Merlin ever give into the idea of retiring, he’ll suggest Turkey as their permanent home. The food is delicious, and the people are surprisingly welcoming. They don’t mind teaching a very western young man their language, and culture. 

Eggsy is walking along the street vendors, hoping to score some dates from Azra, when he sees it. He stops short, and changes his trajectory. He picks it up from the stand, and hold it out to the vendor. 

“How much?” Eggsy asks, trying to utilize his broken Turkish. 

“Twenty.”

Eggsy screws up his face, and shakes his head, “Too much. Give ten.”

“Nineteen.”

They haggle for several minutes, and eventually Eggsy buys it for thirteen. 

*

“What do you think? Think he’ll like it?” Eggsy asks anxiously. 

“He’ll adore it, Eggsy. Here, I have a couple things you can add to it when you give it to him.”

*

The cabin door opens, and Merlin steps inside. Eggsy is perched in his usual chair by Harry’s desk, absorbed in a book. Harry is pouring cover maps, and charts. He insists on doing it himself even though the crew is in a position to hire on a navigator. 

“Evening gentleman.” Merlin says, as he closes the door behind him. 

Eggsy looks up from his book, and his breaks into that grin. The one that says he’s been up to something, and Merlin will have no choice, but to approve. That is a terrifying grin. The first time he’d let Harry tie him up, it was because of that grin. 

“I got you a gift,” Eggsy announces, “Close your eyes, and hold out your hands.”

Merlin sighs, and does as instructed. Something weighty is placed in the palms of his hands, and something else is placed on top. 

“Okay. Open your eyes.”

It is a leather bound journal, and some sticks of charcoal. The leather is stamped with an intricate pattern of leaves, and has a slight sheen to it in the light of the setting sun. 

“It’s beautiful, Eggsy. Thank ye.”

“Thought maybe you could give art a go again, get back some of what you loved, yeah?”

Merlin reels him in close, and presses a firm kiss to Eggsy’s lips, “Oh my dear lad, what have I done in my life to deserve ye?”

*

“Harry, if ye can’t stop wiggling then I can’t sketch.” Merlin says with exasperation. 

“It is hardly my fault. Usually when this much skin is exposed, I get to touch it.” Harry retorts. 

It’s been several weeks, but Merlin has gained back a good deal of the skill he lost over the years. Turns out it’s as much muscle memory as anything else. He’d filled the first sketch book Eggsy bought him, and had bought another when they sailed to India. Although he didn’t splurge on it quite as much as Eggsy had done. 

Tonight, Eggsy has smiled that smile again, and somehow roped Harry into posing for a sketch. They’re together on Harry’s bed. Harry’s legs are opened just enough for Eggsy to rest between them, his head on Harry’s shoulder. His face is turned up towards Harry, his shirt is unbuttoned, and the candlelight does interesting things to the stretch of exposed skin. The way Harry’s hand is resting on Eggsy’s hip, it tugs at the fabric of his shirt, and reveals just a hint of Eggsy’s nipple. 

Really, Merlin can’t blame him for wanting to touch, and play with it. Except it makes it awfully difficult to sketch. 

Harry’s hand wanders lower, and cups Eggsy’s cock. Eggsy lets outs soft moan, and that is Merlin done for. He sets aside his supplies, and joins his lovers in bed. 

In the morning Eggsy will tease him about getting charcoal on his arse.


End file.
